Auburn hangs on for win over Texas Pan-American

The same Auburn team that beat two SEC teams by a combined 36 points, downed an ACC team on the road and hung in a game against the No. 10 team in the country nearly let Texas Pan-American — a Division I independent — escape Beard-Eaves-Coliseum with a win Tuesday night.

The major talent gap and an overwhelming height advantage — a rare instance at any point of the year for Auburn — translated into an ugly, 66-63 victory before a listed 3,283 fans — 8,784 less than the turnout for Sunday’s women’s basketball game against Tennessee.

“We’re just happy we survived,” coach Jeff Lebo said. “That was not pretty by any stretch.”

Tuesday’s game mimicked the multiple struggles Auburn had with inferior competition throughout its non-conference schedule. Unlike their convincing wins against Alabama and Arkansas, or their tough battles against Florida and Kentucky, the Tigers looked more like the team that lost to Mercer and battled to the end with Alabama State on its home court.

Texas Pan-American came into Tuesday having lost five of its past six and without its leading scorer and rebounder, Emmanuel Jones. Only two of the Broncs five wins this season have come against Division I opponents.

“I feel like it’s a big letdown,” senior Rasheem Barrett said. “I can’t let my teammates be comfortable with just a win.”

A game between the 335th and 339th worst foul-shooting teams in the nation ultimately came down free throws.

Auburn, four spots down from the Broncs in free-throw ineptitude, made just enough not to lose.

Once Texas-Pan American began to foul on purpose with 24 seconds to play, Auburn made four of its final six attempts.

After an uncontested P.J. Turner layup with 7.2 seconds remaining cut the lead to 65-63, Quantez Robertson clanked his first attempt to keep it at a one-possession game.

For the game, Auburn made just 15 of its 27 free-throw attempts.

“We’ve got the same guys missing free throws in crucial times,” Lebo said. “Fifty-five percent is just terrible. Terrible. Terrible is what it is.”

Auburn’s defense held ground at the most crucial point of the game. Texas Pan-American’s Nick Weiermiller was well behind the 3-point arc and had multiple hands to shoot over, as his attempted game-tying shot clanked off the back rim.

“Our defense kept us in it,” Lebo said.

Take away Auburn’s 14-0 run to start the game, and the Broncs outscored Auburn 63-52 in the final 36 minutes. The Tigers shot just 25 percent from the field (6-of-24) during the second half, as the Broncs hit 14 of their 30, including four 3-pointers.

Texas Pan-American even took a brief lead after a Weiermiller 3 with 9:26 to play and extended it to 3 points two minutes later. DeWayne Reed, who led the Tigers with 14 points, gave Auburn back the lead for good with an uncontested layup at the 6:16 mark.

“I thought we came out showing signs of maturity because usually games like this we show up lackadaisically,” Barrett said. “As the game went on, we got nonchalant, basically.

“We took them for granted.”

Auburn has three days to figure out what happened before Saturday’s return to conference play against Vanderbilt.

“We have to prepare for Vanderbilt even harder and we have to show maturity,” Barrett said. “When we come out and play like we did tonight, we know we have to work harder.”

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